Bernard Kerik’s appointment as the city’s police commissioner was met with the same spectrum of reactions that predecessor Howard Safir faced almost every day – praise, optimism, derision and suspicion.

Police officers and public officials said he’s the best man for the job, while community activists and civil-rights leaders claimed the feisty former Correction Department commissioner is a loyal “puppet” of Mayor Giuliani.

“He’s a cop’s cop. He was the best street cop I ever worked with,” said Sgt. Jerry Kane, who worked with Kerik at Manhattan’s Midtown South Precinct in the 1980s.

Former commissioner William Bratton, who quit his job after a falling out with the mayor, said Kerik has management and leadership skills that will work well in the NYPD.

Safir, whose tenure at the NYPD was marred by the Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima and Patrick Dorismond incidents, had lobbied for Chief of Department Joseph Dunne as his replacement, but predicted the NYPD would “be in good hands” with Kerik.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, however, said Kerik is the wrong man to improve police relations with the city’s minority communities.

“The real police commissioner in New York has been and will remain Rudy Giuliani,” he said, adding Kerik is simply another Giuliani “puppet” and “will walk in lockstep with the will and wishes of the mayor … we do not expect anything other than more of the same.”

Norman Siegel, head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, complained that “there was no input from the civil-rights or civil-liberties community” on the appointment.

He said community leaders would like to meet with the new top cop, but “he has to be willing to listen to us.”

Norman Seabrook, the president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, worked closely with Kerik and predicted he’d be able to mend fences.

“He has his finger on the pulse of the city. He’s capable of reaching out and understands diversity,” Seabrook said.

Kerik himself said he hopes to be the police commissioner for the people. “I’m going to visit the cops, I’m going to visit the communities. I think they will be seeing a lot of me,” he said.